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Article: Wide-gap welds offer railroads potential savings.
- Article from:
- Railway Track and Structures
- Article date:
- August 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Replacing defective rail now requires two welds, but the process could be done with only one wide-gap weld, which would save both time and money
Wide-gap welds potentially have two primary benefits: they can improve track integrity by reducing the total number of welds in track and they can save money.
Two standard welds are needed to repair most defective rails, whereas, in many cases, a single wide-gap weld can do the job. Wide-gap welds can save up to nearly $900 per defective rail, given the right use, according to a 1997 cost analysis by Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (Technology Digest 97-033). Results from tests in the laboratory and ...